


The Knots We Tied Come Undone

by lilstrawbaby



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: F/M, Love/Hate, Pining Bedelia, Pining Hannibal, Relationship(s), Revenge, Secret Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 06:36:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6791188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilstrawbaby/pseuds/lilstrawbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If he wanted to throw everything they had away, she was certainly going to eliminate the things he cared about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Knots We Tied Come Undone

The instant Bedelia suspected what Hannibal was really up to, she began to scheme. If he wanted to throw everything they had away, she was certainly going to eliminate the things he cared about. 

Because the truth of the matter was, she and Hannibal were actually married; they had tied the knot years ago while on a trip to France, after medical school, and though they drifted apart at times emotionally and physically, they never severed their legal ties. She took their vows seriously, even when they weren't together, where Hannibal was freer with his favors. It wasn't until she agreed to see him in a professional capacity that the little things that didn't add up way back when began to form a coherent, yet appalling, picture.

She was married to a serial killer. And not just any serial killer, but a cannibal. So, she played her cat and mouse games with him, and after confronting him with the truth, she fled. Unfortunately, the Feds sussed her out and dragged her back into the lion's den. When forced to choose between abetting or putting the needle in the arm of the man she still loved, she took the easy way out. She feared him far more than prison.

When her phone rang and she saw the blocked number, she knew the inevitable had finally happened. She answered, leaving the line open, and heard him say, "come home" in a low voice, succeeding in minimizing his accent. Her response was to hang up without uttering a word and to point her car toward the house she closed up weeks ago.

She was glad he was still showering when she got home. Making a beeline for her bedroom, she removed her .45 from the gun box, made herself a drink and sat on the bed, waiting. She admired his physique as he stepped out of the shower, unselfconscious of his nudity, though likely certain he was still alone. She missed him, missed sharing a bed with him, and desperately missed their intimacy. Before Will Graham, she was certain they were finding their way back to one another, but after everything, Bedelia is considering cutting her losses for the first time. She simply wanted complete confirmation of her suspicions before she left for good.

Instead, he told her she is his last teacup, which does fill her with a degree of satisfaction because she is the only one who hasn't betrayed him. It also warmed her heart to hear that he had left his beloved Will for dead due to his unwillingness to let go and let Hannibal. These were the reasons she agreed to flee to Europe with him. If he believed it was because she wanted further study, she wasn't going to correct him.

At first they were happy. They slowly reclaimed their lost intimacy, emotional, and eventually, sexual. She allowed him his "hunts" and he gave her freedom with no pressure to join in to keep it. As they settled in Florence, the idyllic life they had been sharing began to crumble. She had already begun to suspect he was pining for Will; he was withdrawing from her, spending more time out prowling the city when he wasn't at work, spending more and more time lost in his memory palace. He hadn't yet noticed she had taken to wearing cotton men's-style pajamas to bed instead of her usual negligees.

That was the end for Bedelia. Her patience worn thin, she began medicating herself in earnest, taking higher and higher doses as her tolerance grew, enjoying her highs when she was high, and plotting after she had come down. She began to shop on the sly, hiding her spoils in the Louis Vuitton trunks she had purchased while they were in France, and stored in the guest bedroom closet. In Italy, she amassed quite a collection of couture, revenge softening the blow of Hannibal's latest rejection. But she did not stop there.

Hannibal left the day to day in her hands. This was a grave mistake on his part, though he did not know it yet. She began transferring funds, syphoning them from his accounts to her own secret, offshore accounts. Just small increments initially, but as they picked up speed going down hill, she began to make larger transfers, her intent to leave his current identity destitute. She wasn't so foolish as to believe that he put everything he had into each identity as they moved from country to country, but it would be an annoyance to him, and she longed to even the score.

Lastly, and without his knowledge, she put their palatial flat up for sale. There were a number of buyers and she strung them along, insisting on the asking price, while waiting for the climax of their latest blood drenched drama to arrive. And predictably, he played right into her hands, unwilling and unable to let his little plaything go. After Hannibal's murder of Pazzi and Jack's vicious attack on Hannibal, she called the realtor and accepted the highest offer. She rushed the closing, put her husband out with a satchel, and shot up, waiting for her next move on the board.

Before returning to her homeland, Bedelia sold everything Hannibal left behind, taking a perverse pleasure in removing all traces of him from her life for good. As the plane's wheels left the tarmac in Florence, she was already penning her tell-all in her head. A devious smile lit her face as she thought of the hefty sum she managed to wrangle from Hannibal behind his back and wondered if he would ever learn of her blatant theft. Would he be angry or would he be impressed by the wicked way she had outfoxed him?

She loved Hannibal desperately, but it was time she saved herself. It was an option she was given when Jack and Will let her go and she had agreed to be an undercover informant of sorts, but instead vanished with Hannibal. She smiled devilishly, recalling Will's angry words about crawling up Hannibal's ass. Either way, her ass was covered (and that was really the most critical part to Bedelia) and it wasn't important she convince the FBI, it was crucial she persuade a grand jury and a nation hungry for the story about Hannibal the Cannibal's bride.

And what a lovely, wounded sparrow Bedelia made, now sober, her novel completed and working its way up the New York Times Best-Seller list. She was the get of the decade and was more sought after than the meaning of life. It was nothing she ever wanted nor aspired to, but she found herself relishing life in the spotlight. She felt insulated, untouchable.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!) by Blu Cantrell.


End file.
